When Mother Nature gets tired of all our antics, she will just shake her hips and we will all be gone. I feel that our planet “Gaia” knows how to heal herself. But those of us running around on her surface may not be happy with the solution. We will have to wait and see. In the meantime, it might be a good idea to pay attention to the details concerning our environment which are becoming more obvious everyday. I don’t think we need a scientist from an East Coast College to decide for us. We can do it for ourselves. In the meantime, love Mother Earth.

Shifts came after crinolines! Like loafers came after saddle shoes. Like straight hair came after “Shirley Temple” curls. Like knee-high socks came after bobby socks. Like bikini underwear came after “spanky pants”. Like eye shadow didn’t even exist in those days. Crinolines and poodle skirts….now that was an era!

I don’t believe in one “expert” from Princeton getting all this press. What are his credentials? What justifies his pontification? We have to be careful to make sure the person expressing an opinion knows what he is talking about. What is his motivation?

We watch bullies on television every night…..on the news, on talk shows and on the television entertainment shows. Where do you think these kids are getting these ideas? I grew up in a world where we didn’t watch television. Movies for kids didn’t have any violence. The most violent movie I saw was the Wizard of Oz - with the tornado and the wicked witch. The worst it got on television was the “Rocky & Bullwinkle Show”. I never saw or experienced a bully in school. So where are these kids getting permission to bully? Our culture!

Back in the old days, 1978, I hit the “glass ceiling” at a radio station where I was the acting Program Director in addition to hold the position of Promotions Director. One day the President of Doubleday Broadcasting flew in from New York City to let me know that it just wasn’t going to work out to have a woman as a Program Director for their number one radio station in Denver, CO. I was given the honor of not being fired, but rather given as “much time as I needed” to find a new job. In those days, affirmative action meant no one in the world would ever hire you again if you sued. So I immediately moved into half days, showing up for work at 9 am and leaving for a long lunch around 1 pm and sometimes just not returning for the rest of the day. I took my time and waited for Frontier Airlines to hire me at a better paying job with a larger future. It took the airline about 6 weeks to work out the details of my employment. Meanwhile, back at the radio station, I was replaced by a man, who didn’t last more than six months in the job. The station didn’t try to rehire me, but I was told later that it took three people to replace me. And I was only working half days!

Easter is deep, dark and brilliant! I live next door to a Carmelite Monastery. Easter begins at 5 am with a fire ceremony at the entrance to the monastery. The monks light the Easter Candle from the flames of the fire while praying for rebirth and resurrection. We all walk silently behind them as we cross over a bridge into the courtyard at the entrance to the Chapel. The moon is full (almost full) above our heads, so it feels more like daylight than early, early in the morning. We are in the Colorado Mountains so the temperature is around 15 degrees. We are bundled up but so ready to enter the Chapel. The Chapel is alight with candles as we silently slide into our seats. After everyone is settled in, the candles are extinguished and we sit in the dark quite as the moonlight streams through the windows. After a few minutes, one candle is re-lighted and the readings from the Old Testament begin. Alternating between readings and singing the one light bobs from one reader to the next. After all the readings are completed, it is time for the Easter Mass to begin. The candles are re-lighted on the altar, the overhead lights are turned on, the Chapel bell rings out and a new day has begun. As the Easter Mass continues the pale light outside begins to become more radiant until the sun rises over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Sometimes the sun rises in time for a brilliant entrance into the Chapel just as Mass is completing. Other years, like this year, the time change didn’t coordinate, so the sun rose after we all had left the Chapel for a potluck breakfast. It was a beautiful early morning. The remainder of the day is taking a nap, to catch up on my sleep and preparing for a potluck Easter dinner with friends later in the day.

I would like to live in a country that doesn’t spend most of it’s time, money and energy killing/destroying. I would like to live in a world, where the United States is the finest example of humanitarian actions based on true care and concern for both the planet and the beings (both two legged and four legged). I would like to live in a community that is concerned about energy saving, environmental protection, common courtesy and the support of the children to grow into mature adults. I would like to live in an American culture that is not pre-occupied with sex. I would like to live in a country where the Bill of Rights is alive and well.

From the vote for the Mount Rushmore candidates, maybe the same voters will vote for Hillary and she will make history as the first woman U.S. President. The U.S. is lagging behind the rest of the world on this point! I’m a woman in my 60’s and I broke a lot of “barriers” and “glass ceilings” in my day. I would like to see this last “glass ceiling” crumble and if Hillary is the only one who wants the job, then, I say, let’s support her! We need to get this last barrier out of the way in the US. Enlightened voters around the world haven’t found it difficult to vote for a woman to be the leader of their countries . Like, health care, the US is still in the 1900’s regarding Presidential selections. I had to laugh a few months ago on one of the Sunday morning Press Shows, six men were sitting around a table talking about the Presidential race. They referred to all the candidates by their last names, Obama, Romney, …….and then the final candidate was referred to as “she”, never using her last name. I found this rather interesting, and if they had permitted a woman into the room to participate in the discussion the use of a “pronoun” for the woman candidate for President would not have been permitted. They would have been encouraged into referring to “she” as Clinton.

I got out of the stock market last year when the rumblings of problems with liquidity in the housing market started to rumble, rumble, rumble. I missed part of the up-turn in the market while everyone else was getting out, but I knew my money was safer in CD’s and other more liquid instruments. I’m wondering why the Bush Administration, with much more information that I had, couldn’t see this coming……or if they did….why did they sit on (you know where) and do nothing? As we have seen in other parts of the world, planning ahead is not one of the present administration’s strong points. Leadership? Where is it? IT’s TOO LATE NOW!

I saw your report on 60 minutes last night and thought it was excellent. I was one of those individuals who tried to pack as much into each day as possible. My mantra was “don’t leave one stone unturned!” I unturned too many up until June when I had a heart attack at the age of 60. I think my lack of sleep on many occasions contributed to my condition in addition to stress and several other factors. Now I sleep until I wake up in the morning. What a luxury and a change of attitude.

Fear is not an Option. I can hear that phrase becoming part of the buzz. As a young woman, fear was the juice that kept me moving forward, like a tiger following me and ready to pounce but I kept one step ahead. And as a result, I moved ahead. Now that I’m in my sixties, I find that fear doesn’t exist. I may have had enough life experience to understand that fear is only in the mind and not a tiger crouched to pounce. Fear is no longer the juice to keep me going. Fear is just not an option any longer. Thank goodness!

I’m a contemplative. I love it when I wake up at 4 am. I don’t sent an alarm, but spirit usually wakes me up for prayer and meditation. If I don’t wake up, that is fine. I probably needed the sleep. At 4 am I can feel the deep silence of the universe. It comforts me. There are few noises and the quiet is the beginning of my day. Blessings on you who wake up at 4 am. We are sisters of the quiet.